Editor's Byte

It had to happen. The Sikh journalist, Jarnail Singh, who threw a shoe athome minister P. Chidambaram must surely have been inspired by his counterpartsacross the globe. The Iraqi scribe who, in a sense, started this shoe-throwingepidemic, also enacted his drama at a press conference. At this rate, Isuspect we journalists will have to go barefoot at media briefings. The ladiestoo might be included in the indignity.

My first reaction to this political theatre of the absurd is: what terribleaim these protesters have. Not one of them -- and there have been several cases --hit the target. They all seem to need some urgent practice at the firing range.Conspiracy theorists will claim they never intended to hit their target. If theydid, the punishment might not be so lenient (the Delhi gentleman, after a briefinterrogation, was let off by the police). Worse, if the protester had succeededin his mission, the politician on the receiving end could easily have suffered aheart attack or severe injury. Which would make the prank much more serious.

There is an upside. The Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi may have beengiven a three-year sentence, but once he is out he will be a very rich man --and also have a new bride. The head of the a large Palestinian family hasoffered Mr Zaidi one of his pretty daughters and a substantial dowry. The Sikhjournalist, at the time of writing, has not yet revealed whether he is single ormarried. However, I am certain the Akali Dal in Punjab will honour him withgarlands and rupees and siropas. He will end up earning more than he ever couldas a journalist.

Again, at the time of writing, the make or style of the shoe is not clear. Ifthe offender was wearing trainers -- and that is the sense I got from the TVimages -- then one could speculate that one of the big three -- Nike, Adidas,Reebok -- might have scripted this comedy. After all, the Turkish manufacturerof al-Zaidi’s shoes has his order book full. You couldn’t buy this kind ofpublicity for love or money.

Meanwhile, the issue the Sikh journalist was protesting about deserves moreattention than the incident itself.

Tailpiece: After President Ronald Reagan was shot on the street,secret service agents surrounded him, but the ex-movie star managed these superblines. He looked up at his wife Nancy and said, "Honey, I forgot to duck."